The editor of the Chicago Record offered this advice for seeing the 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition, enormous as it was. Seeing the Fair Nine out of ten people who find themselves for the first time within the World’s Fair gates are aware of a sensation of hopeless helplessness before the baffling array of buildings and perspectives. The doors of half a hundred interesting-looking palaces stand temptingly open, and the visitor halts before them as Bassanio before Portia’s caskets. Which [...]

Charles H. Dennis (1860–1943) served as the managing editor of the Chicago Record during the 1893 World’s Fair and likely penned these thoughts about the architectural wonders of the Exposition. Exhibits and Their Shelters Theoretically the prime object of a World's Fair is the exposition of the various products and the progress of man's handiwork. For purposes of protection and shelter these exhibits must be roofed over and inclosed; buildings must be constructed to house them, the housings being [...]

The inaugural issue of Jewell N. Halligan’s monthly periodical The Illustrated World’s Fair listed Robert Ingersoll as a contributor. Known as “the Great Agnostic” and dubbed “Pope Bob” by the Chicago press, Robert G. Ingersoll (1833–1899) was a famous lawyer and one of the foremost freethinkers of the era. “The editor of this journal has been personally promised an article from the pen of Colonel Robert G. Ingersoll,” wrote John McGovern in the October 1891 issue of Illustrated World’s [...]